Her Protectors
by AEM1
Summary: George is completely miserable after Fred's death and Ginny's just miserable without either of her beloved twin brothers.  Ginny tells George a little story hoping it will be what he needs to move on... Oneshot.


A/N: Hi again! So yeah I literally just found this story again. I remember writing it right after writing my last HP fanfic 'Back to Back' (Go read! --Shameless plug) cause my muse was practically exploding with all these ideas for angst about Fred's death but until now 'Back to Back' was the only one I ever submitted, cause I kinda forgot I'd finished this one til I reread it tonight. Lol. The rest are started like so many stories I write cause my muse and I both suffer from ADD (Tragic, I know :-D) and jump around from story to story constantly, so if I ever finish em, rest assured they'll end up on here. So here ya go. Hope you enjoy! Sorry if it seems kinda incest-y but I didn't mean it that way, honest. I'm just a sucker for angst and sibling/family closeness. Like seriously. It's kinda sad, actually...Lol jk. Anyway, enjoy! And review, please! Reviews seriously make me beyond happy. :-D

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George Weasley lay in bed facing the wall. He had been that way since coming back from Hogwarts. Since the Final Battle. Since finding out that Fred…He couldn't even think it, for thinking it just made it that much worse…made _him_ feel that much worse… 

He didn't know what to do with himself and that feeling did nothing to make him feel better, for one of the things George had always been sure of was what he was going to do with his life, and that had been to run a joke shop with Fred. The second thing had been that he and Fred would always be together, never would be separated. Guess you can never be sure of anything, for now Fred was…gone and George was honestly not sure if he could even face the joke shop again, let alone run it by himself. The two things George Weasley counted on in life gone in the blink of an eye.

Another thing George could barely face was his family. They were worried about him, that part was obvious, but the way they looked at him sometimes, half the time with the worst expression of pity, the other half, almost like they expected him to be both George _and_ Fred at the same time, to make up for the fact that there was only one twin instead of two. It quickly got so George could hardly stand to be around those he loved best, so he began holing up in his room. The room he used to share with Fred. Another reason he began hiding from the world was, though he had discovered he had the ability to feel terribly alone even in a crowded room, he wanted to be completely and totally alone. There was no one he wanted to be around. Well…there was, but that wasn't possible and that thought did nothing but make George feel a million times worse. He could never see his very best friend again. Sure he could cover his ears, (or rather one ear and the hole in his head) and look in a mirror, but that wasn't even the same, for deep down, he knew it was his reflection, he was staring at, not Fred, for when he used to see Fred's reflection, his own was standing right beside it.

George heard the door to his bedroom creak as it opened, but he didn't bother to look to see who it was. Simply, he didn't care. It was a terrible thing to think, but it was true. One of the tricks to hiding from the world was whenever someone tried to infiltrate, you needed to pretend no one was there, so that's what George did. He closed his eyes, pretended to be asleep and hoped whoever had come into a room where they were not wanted by its owner would realize that and leave soon.

Unfortunately, they didn't. George heard the floor creak slightly as the unknown person made their way across the room to George's bed. George could tell they were standing over him, studying him like he was some interesting exhibit at a museum, and suddenly, much to his dismay, George felt someone weighing down the bed as they sat down beside him.

"Hi George" whispered a young female voice. Ginny. George recognized the voice of his only sister immediately. He felt as she brushed the red hair, so like her own, out of his eyes lightly with her fingertips, making George resentfully wish that if she wanted to she'd fiddle with hair so badly, she'd go play with her own bloody hair and leave him alone. Unfortunately she didn't. "I'm gonna tell you a little story…" Ginny whispered "Once upon a time, there was a little girl and this little girl had 6 older brothers, including a set of twin brothers, who…well, she couldn't say she loved the best or even were her favorites, cause she loved all her brothers equally, but the twins were easily the brothers the little girl got along with best, and the ones she loved spending time with.

"The twins were inseparable and from a young age, the little girl wanted to do everything they did. She wanted to be strong and brave and have an attitude, just like them. The twins played Quidditch, so the little girl wanted to too, even though they didn't let her most of the time. The twins enjoyed being the center of attention, so the little girl did too. The twins loved making people laugh and playing pranks and their little sister was easily their best audience and as she got older, she was more than willing to jump right in with their jokes. Anything that involved the little girl spending time with her twin brothers was all right by her, even if it involved being the target of the twins' latest prank. Simply, the twins were the little girl's favorite people in the world. They made her laugh always, even when she was sad, they held her when she was scared or upset, which were possibly the only times she saw them serious. They were her big brothers and the little girl firmly thought that there could be no better big brothers anywhere, except for possibly her other brothers.

"Then one day something terrible happened and the little girl's 6 brothers were whittled down to 5, and the one that left them was one of the little girl's beloved twin brothers. The little girl…was…devastated" Ginny stopped and took a deep breath, trying to get her emotions in check and worked furiously to stabilize the emotions that were threatening to overtake her. "But not nearly as devastated as the twin that was left behind. He was simply a wreck. He hid day after day in his room…the room he shared with his twin for all his life, hiding from the rest of his family, only leaving it when everybody else was in bed, and no one had heard him crack a joke, or even seen him smile since the death of his twin. Before, he had never been without a smile. He was miserable and the little girl was miserable. The brothers, who had taken care of her all her life, who made her smile when she needed it, who held her when she was afraid, and simply, who she counted on high above nearly anybody else were gone. Sure one was still there physically, but mentally…was another story. And that made the pain of losing her brother doubly worse, because it was almost like she had lost them both. The little girl understood completely that her brother was miserable over the loss of his twin and might…might not ever be the same again, but…but more than anything in the world, anything she had ever wanted in her entire life, she wanted her brother. Not even just for herself. She was worried. She was worried he would spend the rest of his life miserable and forget to live. She understood he was in a lot of pain, but still, the little girl didn't want to see her big brother like that. She loved her brother too…too much to see that happen to him. Most of all, she wanted her brother back. Maybe it was selfish, but there was one part of her that wanted her brother back simply because she'd already lost one brother. She didn't want to lose them both"

By now, the tears fell freely for Ginny, but she didn't care. Crying, she looked at the back of her brother, still turned, hoping she'd get some reaction. After only about a minute, she got up quickly, the pain of the loss of her brothers practically too much to bear, making it so all she wanted to do was be alone. Halfway to the door, she heard a voice quietly whisper her name "_Ginny…_"

Ginny spun around and found herself facing her brother, George, standing directly behind her. Tears ran down his cheeks as freely as it did hers; the first tears he had cried since his twin's death. Still sobbing, Ginny launched herself directly into George's arms. George lowered himself down to the bed directly behind him, holding his baby sister close, as brother and sister, arms wrapped tightly around each other, sobbed for their lost brother, while sitting on the lost brother's bed.

Ginny curled up as close as she could to her brother, entirely in his lap now, comforted by the fact she had one of her childhood (and beyond for that matter) protectors back, but the fact that the other one, who, as recently as a few short days ago, would have been sitting directly next to the first as both boys shared the job of comforting their baby sister like they had shared everything else in their lives, a job that had always been theirs, wasn't there, made it feel almost like little shards of pain were repeatedly stabbing her in the chest. The twins had always been her comfort, her security blanket that she could count on above all else. She cried along with George as she remembered their childhood spent with her constantly trailing after them, like a small, pigtailed shadow. Remembering how they never minded her following them one bit, and in fact, encouraged it. Then her first year at Hogwarts…The Chamber of Secrets…lying cold, scared and close to unconscious on the freezing cement floor, watching as Tom Riddle got stronger as he sucked all the strength, desperately wishing for anyone to come, but most of all wishing for the twins. And while she had been quite happy when she woke up to see Harry Potter looking fearfully at her, and while her spirits lifted significantly upon hearing, then seeing her brother, Ron at the end of the tunnel, it had been Fred and George she most wanted to see. Later, lying in the bed in the hospital wing as Fred and George barreled in, freckles vividly standing out against their pale skin, and then, despite Madam Pomfrey's warnings about moving her while she was still so weak, as Fred effortlessly picked her up and held her close, while George held her hand, was one of Ginny's most treasured memories. The Quidditch World Cup…first, watching with amusement as the twins danced around the tent, excitement running high after the Irish won, then later, when the Muggles were being tortured, as the twins each grabbed one of her hands, and set off to somewhere safe, their little sister tucked safely in between them. The next year, three Christmases ago now, when their father had been attacked, sitting in Sirius Black's kitchen at the table, the twins sitting one on each side of her. Moral support. The twins seldom sat apart by choice, but the few times they did, it was so one could sit on either side of her. Flanking her. Protecting her.

The twins had been her protectors forever. The ones who she counted on to take care of her, for as long as she could remember. Sure, the thing with having six older brothers is she never had a lack of people to count on and depend on to take care of her and that was what she loved about having so many brothers, even though it could get annoying at times, and they were all (even Percy for the most part) always more than willing to do whatever it took to help and take care of their baby sister, more often then not it was the twins that she wanted when she was hurt, sick, or sad. The ones who she ran to when she was scared, cried with when she was sad, and laughed with the rest of the time. But now she didn't have that. But she did. She had one. She had her George, and while it didn't make up for losing Fred, having one twin was better than losing both.

"I miss him…" George said quietly. Sniffling, Ginny lifted her head to look at her brother, look into the eyes as familiar to her as her own

"I miss him too, George" Ginny said softly, as one lone tear trickled down her cheek.

George looked at his sister, and smiling faintly, reached up, and brushed the tear away from his sister's face "Don't cry, little Ginny" George whispered, using the name he and Fred had called her, when she had been little more than a little girl, trailing after the brothers she so admired.

Ginny's eyes filled up with tears at this "I won't"

"Well, you're doing a right terrible job at it, little missy"

Ginny couldn't help it; she let out a somewhat strangled (from her tears) laugh.

"Wow, Gin, how'd you do that? Sounded like a cross between a goose and the sounds the lawn gnomes make when Mum makes us degnome the garden" Ginny laughed even harder. "I'm sorry I made you sad, Gin" George said quietly, looking away from his sister for the first time.

"Technically, we could say it was Fred." joked Ginny, without missing a beat. Neither sibling mentioned that was the first time anyone had said Fred's name since he died.

George smiled faintly "Excellent, we'll blame Fred." Both George and Ginny knowing this wasn't true one bit. "I'm sorry I worried you" he said softly.

Smiling, Ginny ran a hand across his cheek "You're here now, that's all that matters." Ginny lay her head back down on George's shoulder, and the siblings held each other a few minutes longer, not crying, just enjoying each other's company and the comfort it brought to each of them.

This was broken when George gently detached Ginny from him, placed her on the bed next to him and, smiling, held out a hand to her. Smiling back, Ginny took it and George and Ginny walked out of the room hand-in-hand. For a brief moment, Ginny remembered, somewhat painfully, the boy that always held the other hand, but then she realized that, though he was gone, it was through the memories she had remembered earlier, sobbing along with George, not to mention the nearly 17 years of memories she had of her brother that kept Fred alive, not wishing for something that couldn't come true. She stopped George, walking towards the kitchen, to the rest of their family, by tugging gently on his hand. He looked quizzically down at her. "And though the little girl may not have both her beloved brothers anymore…" she started softly "she had one and though it didn't make up for it, that was still better than having neither and the little girl and her brother would both be okay. And that's all that matters"

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A/N Part 2: Thanks so much for reading!!! Hope you liked it! Review? 

-AEM


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